School Day: The Problem With Algebra

Amy Doyel's face crinkles in pain as she remembers how algebra gave her fits in the eighth grade.

"I just didn't get it. A lot of us didn't get it," said Doyel, who graduated with honors last month from Gloucester High School.

She had managed to earn a "C" in algebra five years earlier, but was still in the dark about the relationships between "x" and "y" and what they represent.

This was cause for concern for the self-described overachiever not only because she was used to getting good grades but because she knew that mastering algebra would be a key to earning an advanced high school diploma. Even for a standard diploma, Virginia high school students must pass at least the first of two algebra courses.

Algebra, once considered a subject primarily for college-bound students, has become a mandatory, or "gatekeeper," course in Virginia, as it is more and more in many states.

With the rise in technology jobs -- many of them requiring some facility with math -- algebra's importance as the basis of developing problem-solving skills is rising as well, said Ross Wiener, a partner with the Education Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington that looks to help minority and low-income students.

Algebra, Wiener said, "is a gateway to achievement both in college and work."

Not everyone is convinced of that.

In February, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, addressing a staggering high school dropout rate in Los Angeles, weighed in with a pointed indictment of the trend to require algebra of everyone.

"It is the sort of vaunted education reform that is supposed to close the science and math gap and make the U.S. more competitive," Cohen wrote in response to a 12th-grade Los Angeles student who dropped out of school after flunking algebra six times in six semesters.

Cohen continued, "All it seems to do, though, is ruin the lives of countless kids. In L.A., more kids drop out of school on account of algebra than any other subject."

Cohen caught heavy flak from academic types on Internet forums, but not all academics have jumped on the algebra train.

Sue Donaldson, who recently retired as dean of guidance at Gloucester High School, has reservations about the need, under Virginia's Standards of Learning, to require mastery of algebra by every student.

"If I could change any one SOL requirement," Donaldson said, "it would be the math. I would require a more functional math instead, such skills as how to do simple arithmetic and balance a checkbook. That sort of thing."

Wiener points out that a key to making algebra accessible to more, if not all, students is producing more algebra teachers.

In a report published in 2002, Education Trust Director Kati Haycock described "a precipitous decline in mathematics degrees in higher education and a shrinking supply of math teachers" nationwide.

From the trust's perspective, this also means persuading more algebra teachers to work in schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families.

Colleges also need to change their approach to training teachers, says Wiener.

"We really need to call on higher education to be more responsive to the needs of our public schools," he said, noting that the University of North Carolina and the University of Georgia are taking the lead in this regard. The two universities in recent years have begun modifying their curricula in response to teacher shortages.

A 2001 survey done of Virginia public schools found that mathematics was one of the top four subject areas with a critical shortage of teachers. Of 132 school divisions responding, nine math positions were unfilled, while 174 positions were held by teachers whose state licenses were not endorsed to teach math.

Patricia I. Wright, the state's chief deputy superintendent for instruction, said that math teachers should be endorsed in the subject they're teaching, but some allowances are made because of the shortage.

"The quality of a teacher is certainly a critical factor in students' achievement," she said.

Amy Doyel and her twin brother, Tim, believe an algebra I teacher, who was patient, accessible and easy to talk with, made the difference for them in the ninth grade at Gloucester High School.

For Amy, who got a "C" in it the year before, the bafflement over what to make of "x" and "y" vanished.

"It just clicked," said Amy, who got an "A." Tim got a "B," which surprised him because he's not as good as his sister at grasping algebra's abstract concepts.

Amy and Tim are pursuing careers that will require math, and both are unabashed advocates of algebra.

"It's the foundation for other math," said Amy.

Their advice to students dipping a toe for the first time into the strange waters of algebra: